DIY Pop Art Portrait

Do you wish to gift pop art portraits to your loved ones on their birthdays? Or do you want to decorate your bedroom wall with a painting of your favorite celebrity? Or you just want a pop art self-portrait to have a chic finish? Then don’t look any further, the answer is right here!

Following these simple steps can make your desired picture straight out of a classic 80s commercial.

Making Hand-Drawing

First, select a picture making sure it consists of clear facial features. Use any app (for example, Poster Shine) to make its shadows visible. Save this picture in Microsoft Word and print it. Make sure it’s at least 6.5 by 7 inches in size.

Take a ruler and draw a grid on the printed picture. You can select any size for the grid (for example, one inch to half inch squares).

Now, it’s time to take your picture to the canvas to turn it into pop art. Draw the same grid size pattern on your drawing board or canvas using a ruler. Make sure you calculate the size of grid squares correctly otherwise your portrait might be disproportionate.

Start to draw your selected picture on the canvas taking one square at a time. Begin with outer boundaries and move your way in to the smaller details. The grid will help you with proportionality.

Erase the grid lines and now draw polygon patterns on the face and neck.

Painting Pop-Art

It’s time to give a pop art style to your hand-drawn image. Number each of your paint shades from lightest to darkest and set a range.

Assign numbers to each polygon within that range. Make sure to use darker shades for deep shadows and lighter shades for less shadow.

Begin painting in the center of the face. Don’t paint the eyes and mouth yet.

Choose the shades that will make the eyes and mouth “pop” among the range of color shades and paint them. Outline the eyes and mouth with black shade. This is the only place on a face where black color will be used.

Add shades of different colors in hair along with thick streaks of black closer to the face. Don’t follow the polygons while painting the hair.

And that’s it! Your painting is ready to be hung up or gifted. Bringing in the richness of the 50s’ colors and classiness, these pop art portraits are a tradition on their own. So grab your paintbrushes and get to work!